


Last Words

by Nivelle



Series: Sleepless Nights [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Doctor Who References, Gen, Memories of characters turning into dust, Peter Parker is a Little Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 14:05:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18718570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nivelle/pseuds/Nivelle
Summary: When Tony hears the words that are etched into his brain and finds the post-it, he's only 88% sure it's just a coincidence.





	Last Words

**Author's Note:**

> This is essentially what I thought watching that scene in Infinity War and then last night I finally gave in and put it into a very short story, because it just kept bugging me.
> 
> Also, just in case: SPOILER WARNING for: ENDGAME (very minor), INFINITY WAR (very major), and Doctor Who - End of Time, Part 2 (it's technically a major spoiler)

“ _I don’t wanna go.”_

  


Until this moment the TV and whatever Morgan’s chosen show this afternoon was – something sci-fi, probably, that’s her favorite at the time – had been not much more than a steady background noise, while Tony was going through a couple of ideas for the lawnmower's next update.

  


But now the dude on the screen has caught Tony’s attention. He has heard that phrase before, he doesn’t want to remember when and in what context.

  


So he turns to his daughter instead. “Why is he glowing?”, he asks, because that’s what the dude on the TV does: light seems to seep out of him, dancing like dust in the sun, and his eyes are wide and filled with tears.

  


From the blanket-burrito that presumably contains Morgan comes a tense “sh” that doesn’t leave any room for negotiation.

  


Tony sighs and looks back on the TV to not think about the time he heard that phrase over and over again by a younger voice, afraid – He stops himself right there. He won’t go down that road again. He promised.

They have a life here, a very good, very happy life. They’ve been lucky. There’s no point in dwelling on the past, especially when it scratches only barely scabbed over wounds.

The dude exploding into golden light and then suddenly being a very different dude behaving extremely strange provides a welcome distraction. Because what the fuck?

  


With the beginning of the end credits, Morgan resurfaces from her blanket and gives Tony permission to speak again, in a way that makes him feel like he’s an AI that’s being unmuted. It makes him understand why JARVIS always was a little miffed after coming back to audio, to a small degree at least.

  


“He is regenerating”, Morgan says.

  


“Why?”

  


“Because he’s dying”, his daughter answers like that’s the only reason why anyone would regenerate and he is an idiot for not knowing that. Maybe he is.

  


“Why?” Now he’s just doing it for the sake of being annoying. And maybe to avoid thinking about someone not wanting to go and dying by turning into particles.

  


Morgan groans theatrically and throws herself against him. It causes him to grunt in an only mildly exaggerated fashion. His daughter is getting heavy and if her left elbow gets any more pointy, it’ll impale him one day. “Because of the radiation! Don’t you remember?”

  


“Hey, I’m older than you, madam”, Tony defends himself grinning, “that means I get to forget things like that sometimes because my memory is fuller.”

He didn’t pay any attention is more the problem, but he doesn’t want Pepper to know that Morgan got to watch new things on TV practically alone and definitely unsupervised. And Morgan is very bad at withstanding the softest line of questioning by Pepper. Tony doesn’t blame her at all for that. After all she’s his daughter and Pepper is Pepper.

  


  


Later that night Tony is kneeling in front of the TV, holding a DVD in his hand. He didn’t even know they had something that out-dated in their home (well, aside from Cap’s visit the other day). Turning to Pepper, who’s curled up on the couch with a book, he holds up the disk and it’s case so she can get a look.

“Where did Morgan even find that?”

  


Pepper glances up from the pages. “Maybe it was in the box from Happy?”, she suggests.

  


Right, that must be it. Tony remembers that box distantly. It was filled with kids stuff, most of it described a ‘classics’ and then some other things Happy might have thought would be okay for a kid. He has no idea what category this DVD qualifies for – having exploding people in it probably stowaway. He should not let Pepper know about it’s more specific contents. Even though Morgan seemed fine.

  


Carefully, because he remembers those things refusing to give up their material when they get scratched, he places the disc back in its case. There’s a dog-shaped post-it sticking to the black plastic.

  


_Hi Happy,_ it says in scrawled writing,

_I really think you’ll enjoy this one. There are oods :)_

_Have a nice day!_

_~~Peter~~ Spiderman_

  


Tony stares at the note, reads it over and over again. He can hear the voice in his head. He swallows, hard, clicks the case shut and places it under the books, discs and cassette tapes to the very bottom of the box, before pushing the box under the sofa, out of reach.

  


When he looks back up, Pepper eyes him with a curious frown. “Are you okay?”

  


Tony plasters on a hopefully convincingly wounded expression. “There are cassette tapes in this box”, he complains.

  


Thankfully, Pepper is too occupied with her book to notice that that’s not the only reason for his distress.

  


  


That same night only a couple of hours later, Tony’s suddenly wide awake. Dreaming – having nightmares – about everyone turning into dust around him is nothing new. This time, though, another memory from earlier that day had been in his dream, too.

  


The kid referencing yet another movie and himself replying with: “I do not want a single other pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?”

And then, later, but not late enough, “I don’t wanna go.”

  


It might be coincidence, but the kid’s a little shit. So it is not entirely impossible he’d quote a character who’s dying and dissolving in the process while pretty much doing the same.

  


“I don’t wanna go. I’m sorry.”

  


Damn. God, he misses this one.

**Author's Note:**

> Here is a [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_68Vyc24i1s) to the Doctor Who scene on youtube.


End file.
